WC Monitor
1/8/2016
Employee Found Dead at WIPP
The Eddy County, N.M., Sheriff’s Office is investigating the death last month of a Waste Isolation Pilot Plant worker at the facility.
Robert Staffel, 62, appears to have died of natural causes, according to a press release from Nuclear Waste Partnership, the contract operator of the transuranic waste storage facility. Staffel was found at about 8 p.m. on Dec. 27 near the WIPP warehouse after his family notified facility personnel that they had been unable to reach him. The worker was unresponsive and could not be resuscitated, NWP said.
The Sheriff’s Office and state medical investigator personnel responded to the scene. “Law enforcement officials are conducting a thorough investigation, as is the standard protocol in cases like this,” the release states.
The Carlsbad Current-Argus quoted Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Matt Hutchinson as saying foul play was not suspected in the death.
Staffel worked in the contractor’s Quality Assurance Department.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Staffel family during this extremely difficult time,” NWP President and Project Manager Phil Breidenbach said in a prepared statement. “Robert will be missed by the WIPP family. We are saddened by his untimely passing.”
